Discover more from Africa Notes: Updates on Africa & EM startups + investments
Note #1: August 15 - Sept 5 2016
context and thoughts
Welcome to the first issue of Africa Notes! This is my humble contribution to the growing Sub-Saharan Africa startup ecosystem: an aggregation of links and notes about what i’m tracking in our region, available to all who might be interested. I’ll be focusing on what seems most relevant/influential/unique to me, so I won’t be covering every single event/hackathon/contest happening in Africa (apologies in advance!).
As I put this together I’ve been impressed by how active our African ecosystem truly is – even this first edition covering the last 2 weeks describes a wave of deals completed, major Silicon Valley investors and execs coming to Africa, and strong startup/developer ecosystem growth.
If you see important deals that I haven’t listed here, please contribute information I’m missing through the “What am I missing?” link at the top of this page. Thanks to Josh’s excellent Vikarah newsletter for inspiring this project, and for sharing his publishing flow process.
And if you want to keep following my updates as they come out, don’t forget to sign up for the email version of Africa Notes on the right side of this page. Enjoy!
pan-africa
invest $1mm Innovate Africa fund has opened to support projects that improve “audience engagement with African civic media” link
startup Demo Africa’s 2016 winning startups announced (congrats all!) link
ecosystem Zuck and Facebook’s Partnerships team visited tech hubs, startups, and gov’t in Nigeria and Kenya on a surprise Africa tour link
nigeria
invest Y Combinator is coming to Nigeria (Lagos & Abuja) on Sept 23-27 link
invest Events venue booking site ogaVenue raised a $45k seed round led by Spark and Hotels.ng link
invest She Leads Africa (SLA) accepted the first 10 startups into their 2016 SLA Accelerator Program link
invest Tech investment fund GreenHouse Capital launched by Venture Garden Group link
startup Nollywood content hits Apple TV with NollyLand’s new app link
startup Consumer healthcare app Kangpe wins Seedstars World Lagos link
startup Healthcare clinic management startup Curcacel Health chosen for Startup-Up Chile’s S Factory accelerator program link
payment Ecommerce giant Jumia launches JumiaPay in Nigeria, then 23 more countries link
payments Mobile payment startup Paga reaches 5mm users in 4 years link
access Nigeria now at 13% broadband penetration link
kenya
invest Mobile survey company mSurvey raised $1mm round from Safaricom’s Spark Venture Fund link
govt Bill requiring licensing of all “ICT practitioners” (!) rejected by Kenyan gov’t link
govt US startup Fulcrum’s app used for Kenya’s tenBoma anti-poaching initiative link
south africa
invest South African Business Angel Network (SABAN) launched at Demo Africa 2016 link
invest Payments startup Zoona raised a $15mm Series B round led by IFC and including 4Di Capital link
invest Anti-piracy startup Custos Media Technologies raised a ZAR 5.9mm investment from SA govt’s Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) link
invest Transit information startup WhereIsMyTransport raises $1.536mm round led by Goodwell Investments link
payments South African Reserve Bank “open to” considering blockchain and cryptocurrencies link
access 1gbps fiber access continues to grow in Cape Town with Vumatel’s rollout link
ecosystem IBM opens its second research lab in Africa at Wits University link
other sub-saharan africa countries